[Anonymous]

I have passed FAR and AUD and most recently took REG on January 21, 2011. I felt great about the multiple choice, but was unsure of my performance on the simulation. I know that the simulation is now worth 40% and was wondering if anyone knew how the simulation is going to be graded? In the past, people have posted on here about how they did not even finish the simulations for REG and passed, but now with the simulation being 40%, I am concerned that even if I got a perfect score on the multiple choice, the simulation could still cause me to fail.

What are your thoughts on how the new exam will be graded and if the AICPA is trying to keep the pass rates at a certain percentage?

[Anonymous]

I don't have any definite answer for your questions but just my analysis on the same feeling after I gave FAR exam. I felt great about MCQs but had very serious doubts about my SIMs. So I did similar calculation that follows:

Even if you get 85% in MCQ, that will be 51 points (85* .60), and even if you get atleast 62% in SIM , you will get 24.8 points(62*.40). So overall you will get a 75.8 score and pass. I finally got a 85 score in FAR.

I have a few questions of my own. Since you did great on MCQs, do you mind sharing which material did you use and the numbers of hours you put in? Did you also have prior experience in tax or law? I have started studying for REG but it seems like crossing a mountain and I am progressing ever so slowly. I am using Gleim but thinking of getting some supplement for tax part, maybe some notes since I dont have much time to study.

One last question on sims. Did you have 6 Q's or 7? Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your analysis. I did not have any previous experience with tax or law, but I had 2 tax courses in college as well as two business law classes. Although they helped me have a basic understanding, I would by no means call myself an expert as I felt as if i was starting from square one when I began studying. I used Beckers 2011 Regulation material. My advice for tax would be to focus on how to arrive at AGI as well as itemized deductions. Corporate tax is also supposed to be one of the heavier topics, which I believe is section 3 in the Becker material. As for Business Law, Peter Olinto does a great job of pointing out all of the details. I also find just doing multiple choice questions over and over again and reading the explanation to understand why you got a question right or wrong really helps. I remember having questions on my exam that dealt with topics I did not fully understand until the night before when I got some questions wrong during a practice exam.

I studied from Dec 22 to Jan 21 when i took the exam and obviously had some days off for the holidays, but I was basically studying full time between that period. I did not count exact hours but figure full time for 4 weeks including a couple Saturdays to make up for missing days for Christmas and New Years.

There are 6 sims in the REG section. Also I just want to point out that just because I felt good about the MC does not mean that I actually did well, but I hope I did, so I guess I will find out in March.

Do you think that the AICPA will be more lenient in grading the new SIMS due to the new 40% allocation since it sounds like everyone feels like the new SIMS were challenging?

[Anonymous]

Thank you for inputs. IT will definitely help me prepare better.

I think so too that new sims will be graded leniently. My opinion is that the point of sims is to see if a wouldbecpa can take a particular data set, understand it reasonably and apply it to solve a problem. They are not made to see how accurate we apply it or how correctly we solve it.

Best of luck for the wait period.

[Anonymous]

I like your opinion and hope it is true!

Best of luck to you as well!

[Author]

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